how long before we have unlimited mobile internet on any device?

[OBLAMA2009]

its has to happen eventually doesnt it. the current situation is stupid, the way you cant do things like watch video/tv on your phone because the data is so expensive. is there some sort of mobile technology on the horizon that will make it mainstream for people to do whatever they want on any device they buy without having to worry about ridiculous data charges. is lte advanced going to do this?

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

Hi from the UK

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't see us ever going unlimited again. Selling you data is the next cash cow for the phones companies now that old cows like long distance and texting are almost dead.

What would be nice is more reasonable caps. 2GB is nuts. My "unlimited" AT&T plan now throttles at 5GB, which is the bottom line of enough for LTE.

 

[2timer]

its has to happen eventually doesnt it. the current situation is stupid, the way you cant do things like watch video/tv on your phone because the data is so expensive. is there some sort of mobile technology on the horizon that will make it mainstream for people to do whatever they want on any device they buy without having to worry about ridiculous data charges. is lte advanced going to do this?

We kind of already do have that technology, it's called Wifi.

 

[2timer]

Double post

 

[dguy6789]

The technology to do that is already here and very widespread in the US. Carriers won't ever sell unlimited again as long as nothing forces them to. People who left truly unlimited data plans or never got in in time to get grandfathered have made a pretty big mistake.

 

[dagamer34]

Never.

/end thread

 

[olds]

... People who left truly unlimited data plans or never got in in time to get grandfathered have made a pretty big mistake.

I thought that too for a while. I have Sprint Unlimited. But Unlimited at less than 1 MB down is useless. I am currently switching to Verizon and LTE.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

The technology to do that is already here and very widespread in the US. Carriers won't ever sell unlimited again as long as nothing forces them to.

this

I try not to think about it and just hope that unlimited data at a reasonable price will eventually happen. Although if network congestion is somehow a problem, then I would not mind paying per usage like electricity but of course at a reasonable cost.

So called unlimited plans that throttled after a certain amount are complete bullshit.

 

[Conscript]

Hmm, I've got it already with Tmo, or am I misunderstanding?

 

[Nothinman]

its has to happen eventually doesnt it. the current situation is stupid, the way you cant do things like watch video/tv on your phone because the data is so expensive. is there some sort of mobile technology on the horizon that will make it mainstream for people to do whatever they want on any device they buy without having to worry about ridiculous data charges. is lte advanced going to do this?

I would like to think that we will eventually, but in the long run we'll probably end up with a situation similar to electricity or water where the cost is so small that no one really cares.

 

[saratoga172]

Hey from Verizon unlimited. Grandfathered in. I'd love to see it make a comeback but I don't foresee it. To much money to be made.

Though I did hear a rumor about $100 plans with unlimited data and you had to bring your own device. It will be a month to month deal and include 900 minutes and unlimited text. That's 900 straight minutes though. No mobile to mobile.

I think eventually it'll be companies like tmobile making progress with say 5gb as their base cap for 25-30 month. If they grow and people change carriers it'll force AT&T and verizon to react.

 

[jersiq]

I've often wondered about how people would feel about a lower guaranteed bit rate, but unlimited plan.

For example, we've seen some impressive results from the simple speedtest.net app showing the maximum rates.

But what if you were guaranteed a maximum of 5Mbps (could be lower of course do to the inherent nature of wireless)
The mechanisms for this exits in LTE today using CoS\DSCP on the underlying IP portion of the provider network. Also, the PGW can arbitrate a maximum bitrate for that particular APN vian the APN-AMBR.

I've always wondered what the market response to a "silver" or "bronze" class of service would be. Most tech people would understand, but I think the inhibition comes from non technical people.

 

[corkyg]

Bandwidth as we use it today, is a finite thing. For totally unlimited access for any device without a subscription or payment will probably never happen. There is not enough bandwidth to support it, aside from geo-political controls and limitations. As someone mentioned above, Wi-Fi is pretty close.

Another important factor is, someone has to pay for it somewhere along the line - and my feeling is that should be those who use it. COnsider it akin to a toll road.

 

[bearxor]

By 2020. You'll pay per device, but tiered data is a stop gap while the industry adjusts to the modern way of data usage.

If you look at it in the US, of the 4 main carriers that operate the majority of the network in the US, only two of them don't offer some kind of unlimited data already.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Carriers need to limit bandwidth to maintain the integrity of the newer LTE networks.

I also see streaming media going in the way of each carrier granting unmetred access to different services. For example, my carrier offers unlimited streaming of music from MOG, so instead of me going with Spotify which is fairly better than MOG, I subscribe to MOG for the fact that nothing is counted towards to my data allowance.

 

[Belegost]

When are we going to get unlimited water plans? And why don't I have unlimited electricity?

If anything we need to move away from the current "big bag of bytes" model and just pay metered usage rates with variable charge based on time/rate. If you want to stream HD movies at peak usage times, then you should pay more, if you set your device to download new episodes at 4am when bandwidth is mostly empty, you pay less. If you need 20Mbps, you pay a higher rate than someone who accepts a software cap of 3Mbps.

End of the day there is a limited amount of RF spectrum useful for wireless data (its a large block physically, but finite nonetheless) This puts a fundamental limit on how much data can be served in a location at a given time. When a resource is fundamentally limited in such a way then the best allocation strategy is one that rewards usage during off times or in unloaded locations, and penalizes usage during high demand periods and in high traffic areas. Such a rate plan would encourage consumer level load optimization - apps would come out that download during off times, and that throttle usage when network activity is high to avoid highest rate charges. This would be the best way to allow the market to load the network more efficiently and allowing each consumer to choose their own tolerance for charges.